food – Dreamyoga

Here is last night’s dream which appears to be a change in subject, moving swiftly on, dream.

The dream starts with me meeting a group of people. They are around a dozen in number and of mixed ages and ethnicities. I have been assigned the task of training them to function as a team and facilitating that process before they can be being posted to Africa implicit is somewhere like Sudan that is a mess. They have already received some training but do not know how to cater for themselves nor the kind of challenge they may face. They are idealistic in orientation and lack a gritty down-to-earth reality. They imagine things to be easier and better than they are. They are a bit goodwill fluffy.

I gather them together as a group and explain for the next few weeks we will be working at honing them into an effective and well-functioning unit, taking them past a group of rag-tag individuals. I explain that life in certain parts of Africa is very different to the UK and Europe. Supply chains cannot be relied on. There are shortages of food, other items, water and electricity. There can be large gaps in supply and that the need to be able to improvise is tantamount. I ask If any of them have any dietary foibles. There are a couple of vegetarians and one man who says that he eats only kosher food. I say to him they he needs to put aside his religious superstitions about how food is prepared and that the vegetarians need to get real. Where they are going ANY food is food and dietary foibles will be seen as insulting to the hungry and to the starving. They must get these quirks out of their system. Furthermore, they must make sure that they eat and remain well because if they become malnourished and weak they will be of no use to those they seek to help.

They are in high spirits. From this moment on the group will be catering for itself. There are no longer canteen meals. In front of me is a large cardboard box containing food items. I explain that these are their rations for the next few days and that they need to plan how to use them and use them well because no other supplies are forthcoming. They start to look what is in the box. There are potatoes, rice, vegetables, pulses and a number of whole ungutted chickens. They start to pull these out and to inspect them. I say they need to figure out some kind of catering roster and menus. They discuss without conclusion. There is a lot of faffing about.

There is a large black man there and he and I say that we will get them started with a dish for tonight. But after we have put it on the stove it is down to them to watch it, finish it and serve it. We knock up a stew using some of the potatoes and vegetables with a chicken. The stew is in a large saucepan in the large catering kitchen of the facility. We hand it over to others knowing full well that they are distracted and pissing about. The dinner will burn and they will go hungry. This will be their first lesson.

Meanwhile someone finds a fishing rod on top of a supply Land Rover and is convinced that he will fish for our suppers. I suggest to him that in the semi-desert there are not many well stocked rivers or fishponds.

Two young near children arrive on horseback. The big guy and I lead them into the stable and help them to remove the tack. We place it on wooden “fences” enclosing the horse stalls. We check if we have done it right. We have.

We go back to the canteen, and the food is burned. There are many recriminations. I say to them that they need to get their shit together or sending them off into Africa will be a complete disaster.

I then look at an Excel spreadsheet of their names. Two of the people on the list are travelling incognito. One is down as an unnamed Jehovah’s Witness, and another is without any name or affiliation. It is understood that he is from a high value background and could become a kidnap risk if his background became known. K is on the list and has turned up. I warn them not to be stupid and to try stirring things.

I turn to everyone and say that the start has been very poor indeed. If this continues, I will be unable to let them go because that would be a waste of the charity’s money. They are a bit of a shit show and not up to scratch.

The dream ends and I note that the dream is a change of subject and moving on from that covered in more recent dreams.

The dream this morning suggests that the French train has stopped. There is no more motion and that nothing is moving. Not moving inertia has set in. Even though events were in motion, that juggernaut has been brought to a halt and looks unlikely to get going again.

Inertia is a symptom of the French system. It is bloody difficult to get started, when it is moving it sweeps all before it, it can be difficult to stop if you don’t comply or agree. But once it has stopped it is bloody difficult to get moving again. Generally, once started things here work out fine just so long are there is nothing anomalous or out of the ordinary. Healthcare can lack the human touch and is very hierarchical, one dares not question deity. They are very happy to throw a lot of cash at things. It can be silo thinking with job demarcation. Global overviews are less common deference is made to specialty. By and large it works and works very well.

Into the equation now of house move is the arthroplasty question.

If, when and where to have my hips replaced?

I don’t take it for granted as it being my right, my due. I do not want to impose or inflict myself. The French system has already been very kind to us. The rheumatologist in Jersey suggested that I need my bone density / brittleness checked out. This is good advice before they take my Titanium pin out. It would be a bit of a shitter if my leg broke without the metal pin. My mind says pin out of left leg. Heal. Hip replace right hip. Heal. Hip replace left hip {if possible}. Heal.

Sounds like a fun year.!! Yipee!!

The high haemoglobin results I have could point at a “faulty” gene sometimes referred to as the Celtic curse. Haemochromatosis. My family has genetic heritage in and around Snowdonia where there is genetic clustering.

“We used 2039 samples from rural areas of the British Isles, from people whose four grandparents were all born within 80km (50 miles) of each other. After over a decade of sample collection and data analysis, the findings of the study were published in Nature on the 19^th of March 2015.

We were absolutely astonished to obtain 17 clusters of individuals based solely on similarities in their DNA that matched remarkably well their geographical locations.

The map shown in Figure 1 is a plot of all the individuals at the average position of their grandparents’ place of birth, where different groups are represented by the combination of the type of symbol and its colour.

The most striking observation is the extraordinary correspondence between the genetic clusters and geographical location.”

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Apparently, you need a prescription from the GP to have yourself genetically tested for this gene which can cause iron build up. My serum ferritin is high in addition to haemoglobin. I can’t buy a test of my genes.

I had better steer clear of strong magnetic fields.

When I try to tell people that gogs, North Wales folk, are different. People just nod and humour me. The study above from Oxford university suggests that there is gog-gene clustering. [Green squares].

Sometimes I have researched things way more thoroughly than your average bear.

I have a pet theory that people are like tabloid newspapers. They tend to exaggerate and say things to garner attention and are less keen on thorough detailed fact checking. I find myself often checking whatever it is that “they” have told me in conversation, especially advice. “They” are rarely the best witnesses. Things are bigged up and other things omitted. It is the conversational equivalent of click bait.

Wait times for hip arthroplasty in Wales range from around one year to greater than two, dependent upon location. We might call this the UK hip lottery. So, a move to Wales would mean around at least an 18 months wait for a new hip.

The problem with Dr Google and Prof. DuckDuckGo is that they tend to open up more possibilities. I suspect that unlike many I am able to read and generally comprehend the latest medical research articles…

We are kind of caught in the inertia again…the summer holidays are looming which means nothing much doing here until autumn…

Oh well…

Tag: food

Charity Food in Africa Dream – 19-10-2025

Haemochromatosis and Inertia